Interior Urbanism

Interior Urbanism may at first instance seem like an opposition between an expansive
infrastructural framework, and the boundary of an interior space. Yet, Interior
Urbanism could be described as the abstraction of the city within a building, either as a
design strategy for spatial organization and wayfinding or as a reproduction of the city
environment of congestion and programmatic proximities.
While these two concepts have been readily explored as an interior condition of
autonomy bounded by the shell of a building, a third emergent definition for Interior
Urbanism exposes the city as a megastructure connected through a continuous interior
logic: the city as one interior space. This effect is produced through the interiorization
of public spaces and their connection to the pedestrian mobility network. Publications
such as “Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook,” for example, documents
the interconnectivity that occurs in Hong Kong at multiple levels of the city, via
pedestrian infrastructure that connects private buildings with public pathways
throughout many blocks. In Seoul, the underground system seamlessly blurs the
private and public realm by hybridizing its infrastructure as public spaces that provide
sequences from the subway trains to underground public plaza, atriums, workplace,
markets, and living without ever leaving an interior condition. This class will explore
the evolution of definitions for interior urbanism as a way to speculate their
contemporary significance through three short individual projects.

This course has the specific aim of addressing agendas in urbanism as an interior phenomenon. By the end of the course, students will be able to produce interior design layouts guided by urban strategies as an alternative design principle. Students will explore the implications of programmatic proximities as a reflection of the city and building autonomy. Students will engage the scale of the city as an interior project.

Basic architecture history and theory